Service-oriented architecture (SOA) has emerged as the most significant shift in how business applications are designed, developed and implemented in the last 10 years, eclipsing the shift to client-server.
The transition of websites from isolated information silos to sources of content and functionality, thus becoming computing platforms serving web applications to end-users and enabling them to upload as well as download content has shifted the way we used Web and hence the word Web2.0.
However, to add to that these technologies have drastically changed the way business is done on the internet. The big guys like Amazon and eBay now use SOA to architect their backend and web 2.0 enabled interfaces to provide their services to their clients and partners. To the small guys, SOA and web 2.0 has greatly reduce the barrier to market entry.
There are numerous websites which are not only providing information on these technologies but we also see that huge enterprises are already heading towards providing SOA solutions to their customers. The huge number of web2 sites arising everyday need no mention.
The biggest challenge I see in this transition is that, the companies want to shift to these new paradigms, but do they have those skilled resource who can think in terms of SOA? Will IT industry be able to fulfill the resource requirements? here the questions is not about the number of resources, but about skilled resources.
With SOA still considered naive though its more than 6 years old, its time to tap this opportunity for professionals by keeping abreast of the technologies, the tools around SOA.